


Ignite

by thewistfulcycle



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish - Freeform, M/M, Post-The Raven King, Raven Cycle - Freeform, The Raven King Spoilers, opal - Freeform, pynch - Freeform, ronan lynch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 01:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7993018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewistfulcycle/pseuds/thewistfulcycle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronan POV. Battles feelings (mainly nerves) about having to see Adam again for the first time since..</p><p>Set immediately after the end of The Raven King (pre-epilogue).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ronan decided to skip school on Monday.

Usually, this wasn't a terribly odd occurrence, but Gansey was particularly annoyed at him this time. I died this weekend and still managed to make it to homeroom, he had chastised on the phone earlier. Ronan had grunted and merely hung up.

It wasn't just that he didn't want to go to school. This was a given. The previous months' motivation to attend classes was more short-lived than usual. Ronan was only somewhat certain he would ever go to Algionby ever again. It wasn't that he didn't want to see his friends.

What it really was, Ronan could barely admit to himself, was a sense of shame-fueled fear.

After a trip to Blue's house after last weekends festivities of saving the town from the crazy bitch and her demons, the members of the group had all gone home separately to sleep it off. Ronan hadn't seen or really talked to any of them since, electing rather to alternate between sleep and trying to figure out what to do with Opal. (Productively, he had found that Opal was quite good at keeping Chainsaw entertained and fed.) Which meant he hadn't talked to Adam.

It seemed horribly mundane and he felt himself getting mad at himself over and over again for it, but Ronan couldn't help but be worried about what Adam was going to say to him the next time they saw each other. It felt like their one night at the Barns was a far away fairy tale no longer within his grasp. Ronan remembered feeling alive on the feeling of wanting and being wanted, but he couldn't stop thinking about it a being in the past. He didn't know what was happening in the present, never mind the future. He didn't know if Adam had meant it. Really meant it. The way he had meant it.He wasn't sure if he had enough energy to ask the question again. but he also wasn't sure if he was supposed to.

Ronan heard a squawk from outside his bedroom. He groaned. Birds were much easier to deal with then this... whatever it was.

Then he heard an answering squawk, high-pitched and girly.

____

Ronan decided to skip school on Tuesday.

He was trying to figure out what to do with Declan and Matthew's rooms now that they weren't there. The logical choice was to give one of the rooms to Opal, but she had the tendency to fall asleep on random spots of the floor.

Ronan was mulling this over while pouring a bowl of cereal for himself - he was hoping that cereal didn't expire because he had no idea where the box had come from or how long it had been in his cupboard - when he heard a quiet knocking on the door. He was instantly annoyed. Putting down the cereal box and moving around the island, he traipsed to the door and opened it.

And there - it seemed like an 'of course' to Ronan afterwards - was Adam . His first instinct was to look at Adam. His second instinct was to look away.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Adam said, his hands by his sides. Adam looked at Ronan's eyes for a second, glanced to Ronan's neck, glanced back to the eyes. He was still wearing his Algionby uniform. It was extremely clean as always. Ronan kind of wanted to make it dirty.

He looked away.

"You can.." Ronan began, walking farther into the house. Adam took the hint and followed. They ended up sitting on the bar stools next to the kitchen island and Ronan added probably expired milk to his probably expired cereal.

Adam tapped his fingers. Ronan stirred.

"Is Gansey okay?" Ronan said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Adam said, his fingers stilling. "A bit quieter than usual, but I think that's okay. All things considered."

"All things considered", Ronan echoed, still looking down at his bowl. Stirring, round and round.

"And you?" Adam said.

"And me what?" Ronan looked at Adam and fought the impulse to look away.

Adam cleared his throat. "Are you.. Okay?"

Ronan rolled his eyes. "Fine as can be."

"I didn't.. hurt anything? Your neck?"

Ronan felt himself softening, and hated himself a little for it. He had almost forgotten about Adam's whole strangling incident as he was so preoccupied still analyzing the kissing incident, but he could see that Adam hadn't. "Yeah, yeah. Your weak little fingers didn't make a dent."

Adam smirked in spite of himself. Ronan's ears burned.

They could faintly hear the sounds of the cows grazing outside. Ronan loved the Barns for being alive, alive, alive. He sometimes wondered if this was something that came with being a dreamer - being drawn to the outdoors and animals - since he knew that his father would have understood this almost visceral connection to nature. Wondered if it was instead just a Lynch thing. Either way, he welcomed the ever present desire to breathe the Earth.

Probably noticing that Ronan was content without speaking, Adam wordlessly pulled out a textbook and started highlighting some passages while Ronan finished his breakfast and washed the dishes. It felt disgustingly domestic. It also felt like friendship. Ronan was still nervous about asking which one was closer to the truth.

(To be continued.)


	2. Deux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronan and Adam do what every new couple dreads - they have "The Talk".

"I don't get how you're so bad at this. You're usually so good at everything, but Jesus," Ronan laughed. Him and Adam had gone into the backyard and discovered an old soccer ball that had belonged to Matthew once upon a time. Adam had tentatively agreed to playing a game of one on one. It turned out that even hours working at a factory didn't always mean peak physical shape.

"Fuck... off," Adam said, but it had a lot less of of the intended effect when he was hunched over, hands on knees, panting for breath. Ronan laughed again and dribbled the ball between his feet. The sky was mainly covered with full grey clouds but he could see speckles of blue peeking through. Opal had followed the boys outside but was mainly just watching the ball's movements. Ronan had pet her hair in greeting.  
  
"You know, you could probably beat me."

"And how's that?" Adam straightened. His cheeks were still pink. Ronan faintly wanted to pet  _his_ hair in greeting. Hello. He stilled the soccer ball.

"With magic."  
  
Adam responded with a roll of his eyes and a stretch of his arms above his head.  
  
"I'm serious. Make a voodoo doll of me eating it or some shit."  
  
Adam's hands drifted downwards towards his own waist. "It's gonna rain, anyway".  
  
"So?" Ronan countered.  
  
_"So,_ I'm not getting mud on my pants just so you can beat me again and feel like a macho man."  
  
Ronan grinned. "You think I'm a macho man?"  
  
"Fuck off Lynch," Adam growled, and Ronan was laughing again. Adam brushed past him towards the house but Ronan had already detected a smile. Ronan followed, falling towards Adam's gravitational pull. He heard a noise behind him and turned before he got to the door.  
  
"Goddamnit, Opal," he snapped," you don't _lick_ soccer balls!"

 ***

 

Adam had to go to work in an hour. Ronan offered to drive but Adam said he already had his car. Ronan felt like time as slipping from him and for some unfathomable reason he felt he had just been given a deadline. They were on the living room couch, watching some crime scene show, when Ronan felt a familiar bubbling sensation that was saying now, now, _now_. 

He turned off the T.V. Adam wordlessly looked at him. 

"I can't..." Ronan started, but he wasn't sure how to end. He had never done this. (He supposed no one had ever done this, fallen for a magician who could talk to trees. The ridiculousness of it all strangely made sense to him.) He looked towards the ceiling until Adam's face no longer clouded his vision. It made him feel like he was talking to the roof, or to God, or to an imaginary friend. It made it easier. "You're leaving."

There was a pause. And then, "For work?"

Ronan scowled. "No. I mean, yes, but I meant here. You're leaving Henrietta."

Another pause. "Not yet." 

"But eventually."

"But eventually," Adam conceded.

"Sometimes," Ronan said, finally shifting towards Adam, "I wonder if I could just dream another you that I could keep while you're gone."

Adam tilted his head. He smelt like the lotion Ronan had gave him. "If it works, I want a pocket sized version of all of you. They could alternate between being my friends and being action figures." Ronan offered a halfhearted chuckle and leaned back. Adam sighed and moved closer to him. "I won't stay gone," Adam said. Ronan inhaled, and felt the bubbles start popping. 

"I don't want you to-"

" _I_ want me to," Adam said, and in his tone was a sense of finality. Ronan took his hand. He was still scared of wrecking Adam's fingers. Adam squeezed. Ronan watched himself trace a thumb across Adam's palm, left and right and left and right, and then he heard a whisper of his name. He looked up, and suddenly there were lips warm on top of his and a hand wrapping around his neck. Their other hands stayed joint; Ronan's thumb still managing to go left and right (and left and right). Ronan wormed an arm around Adam's waist and pulled him closer, always closer, and the kiss went deeper. 

They stopped. Eyes opened. Adam moved even closer until he had all but crawled on top of Ronan and rested his hand on Ronan's chest. "I like your eyelashes," he confessed, voice low and scratchy.

"Kinky," Ronan said drily. Adam flickered his eyes up in warning.

They sat like that for a few moments, the house still and quiet. "Do you think we can do this?" Ronan said. "Me and you. I mean, do you want to do this?"

"Yes," Adam responded without hesitation. "And yes."

"Ah, well," Ronan said. "My irresistible eyelashes to the rescue-- fucking  _ow._ Don't  _punch_ me, Parrish, you sadist!" And then it was Adam laughing, and Ronan laughing, and suddenly they were intertwined together again. They separated only when a distinct buzzing noise began chirping at them. An alarm. (A deadline. Ronan was content he had met it. Having been present for every homework assignment he had ever been assigned, he knew this was a rare occasion.)

"I have to go," Adam. "But I'll see you tomorrow?"

Ronan nodded and smiled. He felt full of warmth. "Tomorrow. And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eek - here's round 2 of my first attempt at fanfiction. M/M pronouns are hard, woo!
> 
> Thanks everyone for their kind words on last chapter! This is kind of a hasty 2am type of deal, so I apologize for any typos. I'm not sure if this is the end or what a different fanfiction might be about, but we'll see when I have another late night..

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time writing a fan-fiction basically... ever.  
> Hope it wasn't completely awful!


End file.
